


Binding Will

by parallelDiversity



Series: Black and Blue, A Part of You [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, F/M, Humanstuck, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-02
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 03:19:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/580721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parallelDiversity/pseuds/parallelDiversity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*dA blows, this wouldn't upload. NYEH!* </p><p>It all started with a rumor, a diary, a girl and three boys, and some post-its. </p><p>John's a loud mouth, Karkat's angry, and Sollux is strange, per usual. Though, Aradia's past brings new light on old rumors. </p><p>When the girl overhears them spreading more lies around her name, she confronts them. Then, thanks to a slight-handed comment, John strikes a match and lights the fuse. </p><p>Soon Megido's mysterious influence is bursting from every corner as she leaves clues of her whereabouts all around the boys. But will they catch her in time for her escape, along with their things, or will they end up chasing her across the country. </p><p>Or... are her intentions far purer than first glance?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1. The Mysteriously Murderous Megido

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Segacat](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Segacat).



Only one thing could be said about the current state of things and how they got there. Only one.

One really shitty bet.

One   _really, really_ shitty bet that they lost.

More like a shitty strain of events that ended in something awful.

Let me explain.

 

May 17, 12:17 PM, Suburbian High School: The Beginning to Many Shitty Events

The scene in the fourth block chemistry class was like any other. Mr. Poorly Paid Teacher was sulking over his paycheck as he found there wasn't a, 'I put up with these little shits, what's my compensation,' bonus. The usual cluster of gossip-happy girls were flipping through the year book and either scratching the "ugly bitches" out of the book or drawing stupid hearts around the chosen hot picks. Across the room sat the gloomy goth kids, some nerdy loners who drew My Little Pony sketches in their text books, and the usual ass-kissers.

This, all according to one Karkat Vantas, was the pick of a very poor crop.

"What, and we're any better?" Sollux snickered as he crossed his legs on top of the chemistry lab table and stared at his Cancerian counterpart with the utmost curiosity.

This counterpart was the crabby youth who swung his car keys around his finger irritably, eyes on the ignorant  fools   who so resided in his presence. You see, Karkat was a dramatic little thing and Sollux was ever used to it. In fact, he'd learned to love his friend's little displays and ruthless rants of ripping his peers down to shriveled little sardines. It's fun if you're on the speaking end of the deal.

"Mm... no, but at least we're smarter than the rest," Vantas sighed thoughtfully.

"Waaaaaaaaaaazzup, my homies, yo yo!"

The firecracker prankster popped up from the other side of the table like a groundhog. His eyes were smiling slits as he snaked around and hopped before Karkat. Somewhere between being ten and seventeen Karkat had lost track of how short John had always been. When they were just kids it was acceptable to be cute and wide eyed, but as they both neared young adulthood it was just plane strange. It was like he'd been hammered down to a meager five foot six. Or maybe it was his childish nature that stunted his growth. That, or Karkat, a lengthy five-eleven, was just taller than average.

"Dude, you're th'o white," Sollux snickered through his lisp as Karkat even snorted a short laugh.

"What? Dude, what, no! I'm so... not... so white," he faded as he thought hard about his words. "Maybe a little... pale, I guess."

"Dude, you're white," the Korean gamer boy rolled his heterochromatic eyes and watched the clock as it ticked down to the end of the last day of the school year.

"So not," John was quite proud and unconvincing of his skin color or personality for that matter.

"So are," the taller one snickered as he followed Sollux's eyes to the clock. Sure enough they had just about twenty minutes until Junior year was a blitz in the past. How he craved that ending so.

"Dude, you're whiter than me!"

"Reality check, dumb ass. I'm Latino!" Karkat popped John over the head as he pulled his bag up onto the table and dug through it.

"Prove it!" John folded his arms defensively over his chest.

"Is this guy for real?" Karkat turned to his friend on the table. Sollux was staring up at his phone, head resting on his bag, face grinning like a mad man.

"Sometimes I think he is."

Just then the door flung open with a loud and startling  BANG  ! All eyes, ears, and underpaid teachers turned to the door to see one of the office secretaries standing there with a gloomy looking girl at her heels. The woman looked nervously around the room and then briskly glided to the teacher's side.

Bending low, she hissed something urgently into his ear that gave cause for a frightened look to befall his usually desensitized nature. It seemed like every inch of him had been electrified to stiffness as he slowly turned his head back to the girl. She was glowering harshly at the tiled floor as if, by some means(if inanimate floors had means), it had done her wrong.

"W-welcome back... er..."

"Megido," the secretary hissed as quietly as panic would allow.

"Miss Megido," he stood with a faint hint of reluctance. The girl only raised her dark brown eyes, threateningly red, to the clock. "I-I'm sure the circumstances were formidable for such an absence. No matter, the grades are in the past," he ushered her in.

Back at the table with the Head-Case Three(a nickname provided by the lowest browed of the school's football team) Karkat was watching this girl cautiously. Sollux had sat up and gave her the same scrutinizing stare as the rest of the class. As if on command his face became tight and contorted with a mix of anger and wonder.

"Wondered when th'he'd be back," he spoke below a whisper as the girl walked down the row near their table and took her seat.

"She's been here before?" John said both absent-mindedly and quite loudly. Even the potheads became fearful statues under her Medusan gaze.

"Shut  up  , you deaf little midget!" Karkat hissed as the girl only opened a book she'd withdrawn from her shoulder bag, equally in need of repair as her skirt of many holes, and began to write. The way people sat around her you'd think she was sketching out a plan for murder of each of the people in the room.

"Well," John lowered his voice to a loud hiss. "Who is she?"

"You're blind and your glasses are doing you no justice," Sollux grimaced as he leaned over on his stomach so that he was between the two. "Miss Megido over there left thi'th cla'th in the middle of February th'hortly after her parent'th went mith'ing. The cop'th th'howed up at her hou'th and th'earched the pla'th'e. Top to bottom, the th'earch ended at her room. Apparently th'he had an altar where her bed th'hould have been and it had the picture'th of twelve people including her parent'th. Ten had their fa'th'e'th ob'th'cured by black ink, two by blood. And gue'th, buck tooth bimbo, which had the blood 'X's on their face'th?"

John thoughtfully stared at the floor for a long time. Sollux groaned miserably as he lowered his voice yet. "Her parent'th, you moron! They th'till haven't found them and have no clue a'th to who the ten other'th are. Ever sin'th people walk on egg'thell'th around her. No one talk'th with her. No one get'th near her."

"Megido-ian Affairs, The Cautionary Tales," a wispy voice rattled each of the three's bones. Sollux went white as a sheet, Karkat lost all of his caramel color, and John vaguely had an idea what mouth that mysterious voice belonged to. Being the first to sit up, Sollux grabbed his things and swung them over his shoulder. "Suppose it's funny to the unbeknownst, am I correct?"

"Whoa, there!" John nearly shrieked as he turned to see Aradia looking up at them with the darkest look any of them had ever seen. Karkat, as unnoticeably as he could, inched away from her slowly. "H-hey, Aradia."

"Don't even try that. You morons have your little loud speaker here to broadcast the latest untrue bullshit to me. I could be overseas and I could get the update on the latest rumor," her voice was quiet, yet impending.

The way she spoke was like every breath was a strain and that her lungs were squeezed tight in her chest. It was almost as if she were about to cry with each word she spoke, yet her eyes were free of a watery look.

"No, it's not like tha--," John tried to cover, but her knife-fight ready glare corked his mouth. Note to himself, don't argue with Megido.

"Oh, it's not? Then what's it like? Gossiping like little Barbies, chattering lies and crap like your mouths are reverse toilets. Hey, that's kinda funny. Shit mouths," her voice scoffed as her gaze cut through Karkat like a cleaver to a marshmallow.

"Pompous, you are. So full of yourself. Though, you think you're above the rest, don't you? Think you're god's gift to a dying world? Mm? You're nothing but a self-conscious fraud. Unrequited in everything, too."

Her next victim was Sollux. "And  you  ! You're suspiciously interesting. So carefree and well informed that it's almost dangerous. I like you. I'd like you more if you didn't spit shit around. It's impolite. Also, there's no indisputable evidence that I killed, chased off, or attacked anyone or anything. A weed on the sidewalk and maybe a cockroach is my biggest claim to murder. Care to inform the police of that infraction?"

All three, in a horrified unison, shook their heads frantically. She gave a slight smirk in a moment of satisfaction as she then shot her murderous eyes back to John. He nearly jumped as she undressed him with her eyes down to his fears, nightmares, and least favorite things.

"Egbert?"

"Y-yes?" He stammered fearfully as she turned and stared at him with a gaze like no other.

"Are you an eighty year old man?"

Neither Karkat nor Sollux could contain their snickering laughter as he went so pale that his freckles stood out abnormally. He looked around the room and at the clock. Three minutes.

"No... no, er... M-Miss Megido," sweating bullets he shoveled his hands deep into his pockets. Maybe something there would either suck him into another universe where he wasn't being mentally strangled by a girl with gloom simply gushing from her entirety or give him an escape. Either way, his hopes would be dashed.

"Then why do you wear bow ties and suspenders like it's 1924?"

Another uncontainable snort from the two behind Aradia.

"Um... f-freedom of fashionable expression?"

"And this shoes. Are you from the eighties, perhaps? No? Feel free to learn to act and dress your age, then. Might do you some justice. Well," she gave a fluttering gaze from his ratty basketball sneakers to his nervous buck tooth grin and gave a long, drawling sigh. "Perhaps not. Can't build something out of nothing."

"Y-you're one to talk!"

Suddenly the entire class had transformed from hot-blood, hormonal teenagers with fruitless ambitions into the very center of Antarctica during the Endless Night. Even the teacher turned his creaky head over to John who's shoulders were trembling with regret. But no. This shit train was en route to Fuck Me town without breaks. He'd already begun what could not be undone and everyone in the room knew it.

"Come again?" The girl's eyes slid up to John's watery blue ones. Her striking face scrunched as she watched him like a vulture might a dying baby bunny. Oh, and was John dying inside.

"I-it's just t-to say... you've got holes in your skirt... a-and you're clothes are... are, um... uh... itchy... looking..."

The gates of hell in the form of a thousand bloody corpses with contorted bodies and faces, pus and fire spewing from its hinges, flames hissing beneath its doors, could have risen from the middle of the floor and consumed half the class and the darkness and fear would not match Megido's wide eyes and flared nostrils. A girl from the group of stuffy rich girls fled the room in fear, followed by a stoner who slid on her hemp sandals and crashed into the desk by the door trying to escape. They were right to run for their lives.

Oh.

So.

Right.

"Y-you...!!" Aradia fumed with rage as John was pressing so hard against the table that he was sure it would be a dark burgundy bruise when he got home that night. That was to say,  if   he got home. "YOU!!"

"Okay, I really didn't mean that, I s-swear it!" John squeaked as he threw himself up on the table in time to doge her furious fist aimed right at his jewels.

Attempting to get away he backed right off the table and onto the floor. Clumsily he darted through a row of chairs, three of which he knocked over trying to run from Megido's native Japanese screeches. "C-can't we all just b-be friends?"

"Run, you dumb shit! RUN!" Karkat called after them as John burst through the door and flew down the hall, one very pissed Asian darting after him.

The room was in absolute disarray by the time the air settled. Karkat and Sollux were on their feet, hearts racing in shock and fear. The rest of the class was breathing hard and collecting their things as announcements had commenced. The teacher slumped over the front lab desk with a green complexion and a wet face. Like the two in the back of the room, he'd sweated his weight in water.

"You think... you think he'll get away?" Sollux stammered as he had his hand at the ready to call the police. Aradia, at the time of exit, looked ready to kill.

"If that's one thing John really sucks at... it's running," Karkat covered his mouth breathlessly as he hopped the desk over to the girl's seat. There, open for all to read, was her little black book of magic. "S-Sol?"

"Ee-yeah?"

"What's... what's this read out to?" Karkat held up her book to the page she'd fitfully been scribbling on.

What was there was not an artful sketch of her emotions, but rather scrawled words in the one language Sollux was best at: Korean. He grabbed her book and stared at the messy characters with a white face. His throat swallowed hard as he closed the diary and held it close to his chest. Awaiting the update, Karkat began to sweat icy little bullets that felt more like needles than the body's way to cool off. "Sol?"

"Karkat, I think we better go... like, now," Sol bounced on the balls of his feet nervously, ready to sprint in an instant.

The two stared at each other for half a second before dropping all their things and bolting.

In unison they forced the door open with their shoulders, disregarding the handle. Little splinters of cheep wood flew to the ground, giving their sneakers traction as they each took a direction down the hall. "I go left, you right?" Karkat asked as Sol had already started down the hall.

If there was any other time to be pissed at lovey-dovey couples that made out in the middle of the hall or slow ass fat kids that toddled like lopsided penguins right in everyone's way, now was the time. With no regard to their personal safety Karkat flew threw them like a snow plow through butter.

"Hey!"

"Watch it, ass hole!"

But he had no time to think about people of a lower standard calling him generic names. His childhood friend was being chased by a venomous banshee with her claws bared. Who knows if he'd tripped on his ridiculously long shoe laces and fell into her wet-hornet mad clutches. Maybe, by a stroke of luck that would equal the combined powers of a bag of four-leaf clovers, eighteen horse shoes, and two leprechauns, he'd gotten away. Or at least to the office.

Karkat nearly dove through the doors of the attendance office to find it void of human life or the sound of screaming. To the main office and it was equally as quiet.

Outside in the hall students were dispersing to their cars, onto busses, or just skipping right out the front doors. None of them looked overly shaken by the sight of a girl with blood drenched hands and a corpse in her arms, so she hadn't gone that way. Down both ends of the hall were lingering smiles and the echoes of delightful chatter. Absolutely no trace of mayhem.

Something was seriously amiss.

Suddenly with a buzz of life Karkat's pocket began vibrating softly. He reached into the fold of fabric and withdrew his phone. Sol had texted him. A wave of fear crashed over him like a bucket of ice water as he read the words and ran back down the hall towards the back door.

Saegar's Bridge!

Clearing the parking lot and narrowly dodging a bus packed with excited kids Karkat darted down the street. Shoving some unsuspecting youth into the grass, he put his legs to good use. More angered shouts met his ears, but it didn't matter. A murderer suddenly gained access to height, broken planks of wood, and a river just deep enough to drown a scrawny Egbert in.

In just sixty seconds Karkat had skidded to the end of a very steep hill. His lungs were burning, legs shaking with an overload of adrenaline, and his mind was racing with every bad thought he could fathom.

Without thinking be began to dart across the street. Unfortunately a poor timing of fate would have a soccer mom in a minivan turning onto the street Karkat was trying to cross. With a sickening  wham   Karkat rolled across the hood and face-planted onto the concrete. A few girls on the sidewalk screamed in shock, the mom emerging from the car with a horrorstruck look on her strained face.

Slowly, regretfully, the teen came to his feet. He slugged upright and rolled his eyes back into place. Grunting, he bent backwards and popped several vertebrae, shaking his head out into the right sorts.

"Don't worry, lady. Won't sue," Karkat began racing down the path once again. He paid no mind to the frightened cluster of girls or the stopped and staring onlookers. Their hearts may have been pounding, but they couldn't compare to his.

Finally he came to Saegar's Bridge where he found Sollux wading in the water. His arms were up defensively to calm her. One hand was outstretched as if to near a trembling doe and the other tightly gripped Aradia's diary.

Across from Sollux was the girl with her fists clenched tightly around John's chest. From Karkat's point it looked like she was using him as a human shield. Honestly, what weapons did they have?

"Look... ju'th... let him go... okay?" He took a step closer, Aradia dragging John with her as she took two steps back.

"I said I liked you, I never said I trusted you," she hissed as her hands tightened around John further. He gasped for air as she leaned up against the bank of the small creek. Somehow it was deeper than it should have been because Sol staggered to stay upright. He struggled to stay a playing force in the talk-down. "You're all the same... accusations... lies, deceit... name-calling... You're senseless little assholes, so why can't I have a turn being mean to you!?"

Karkat, clearly acting on the eye signals from Sollux, began to inch down the sloping hill behind her. Sol moved a little closer. She had nowhere to go. Seeing as she seemed to be intent on staying in the water, she was trapped.

"An eye for an eye... you know that th'aying?"

"Makes the whole world blind... Funny thing  is  ," she crushed against John's rib cage as if to squeeze the life out of him. From their standing, she could do it, too. "You're all so blind to the cruel nature you have... so you can't break what's already  broken  , Captor!"

"Well I know you're not blind," he swallowed hard as he saw Karkat inch closer and closer. Both were incredibly thankful for the deafening traffic that zoomed by on the road above. "I al'tho know you're... you're not like thi'th. Megi... Aradia... don't hurt John, but I read the la'th't page. The diary."

How they wished she had no strength left. John let out a soft squeak as she constricted him further. "No. No! Li'then," Sollux insisted as Karkat was now just feet behind her. "Aradia, I read it, but... I know you don't want to leave thi'th pla'th'e with murder on your conscien'th."

"What does it matter? They already think I killed my parents!"

"Not true, not true. We've  heard   you killed your parent'th. No fact'th. Now, we can all walk away from thi'th today. We'll never tell a th'oul," Karkat inched closer and closer. He was inches from the girl's back.

 Just a little closer. Damn it, KK, hurry the fuck up!   Sollux prayed as he outstretched his hands over her.

 Snap!   

Sollux became a statue of fear as all color drained from Karkat's face. Slowly he looked down to his foot where, beneath his grey sneakers, lay the snapped twig that had released the loudest crack he'd ever heard. The air became heavy as Aradia, in a split second, whipped her head around and grabbed a hold of Karkat's collar.

" ENOUGH  !" She screamed as she flipped him over her back and into the creek.

In an escape plan of panic she pushed John over on top of him and jumped from the water as if it were fire. On her hands and knees she clawed up to the sidewalk and raced towards the hill. She was heading back to the school.

John was scrambling to his knees as Karkat shoved him off his chest and came up as if he'd been swimming through leagues of water. "Hwah!" He gasped loudly as his chest rose and fell in shock. Keeling over his knees, Karkat frantically attempted to catch his breath. Sollux collapsed back onto the bank thanks to a sudden wave of melatonin rushing through his entire body. He felt tired and stiff as if he'd just crawled from a boxing ring after thirteen rounds with a human eighteen wheeler. "She's... so damn strong!" Karkat choked after regaining some of his strength.

"Biggest mistake of my life," Sol fell on his back as he stared up at the passing clouds. It looked as if a rain storm was rolling in to match the mood. "Asians, man..."

"What?" In unison Karkat and John recoiled.

"Let'th put... our focu'th on th'omething u'th'eful... rather than my auto-ra'th'ial bashing," he sat up again and stared at the two still sitting stomach-deep in green creek water. "The better que'th'tion, gentlemen... i'th where did th'he go?"

 

It took the there a miserable twenty minutes to scrape their way up the steep hill back onto the side street that led them right to the school. By then nearly all of the school had escaped to the follies of a hot summer day, the air full of static with the incoming thunderstorm at their tails. For the three idiots that had gotten knee deep in some real serious shit, the day was turning out to be far different.

At first they were relieved to find the doors that faced the gym lobby wide open to air out the stuffy school. However, they soon regretted their momentary happiness. When they got to the chemistry lab the lights were off and the door was locked. Stuck on the door was a little pink post-it with a message hurriedly scrawled by Underpaid Nobody.

 All bags left in the science room are in the greenhouse across the hall.  - Underpaid Nobody 

"And back we go," Sollux grumbled as he pulled the door to the greenhouse supply room open and cautiously stuck his head in. Besides shelves packed tight with dusty text books from dino-days and some mobs and waders, the room was clear. "We're good," he motioned Karkat and John in.

The greenhouse was equally deserted, but contained no such belongings. "What the hell!"

"Uh... guys?" John blinked down at a post it stuck onto the frayed wooden countertop. Written uniquely in a special leetspeak, was a message. Sollux's eyes went to darts as Karkat's jaw fell open. John only felt a sudden wave of fear and guilt swallow him whole as they all read the message.

y0u'll pay. in the mean time, i'll keep y0ur things c0mpany.

~ Megido, A.

"Sh-she almost seems playful... doesn't she?" John chuckled nervously as Sollux gave him a glare murderously equivalent to Aradia's. "N-no?"

"Egbert! My bag'th got my phone, router, and  baby  ! My  BABY  !!" He roared as he stood on his toes.

Sol's baby was, in fact, a tuned up Alienware laptop with his own personal fitted features. He'd worked two jobs and took night shifts just to afford that laptop. Keep in mind, this was back when he was thirteen. Just to customize to and arm it to the teeth with the best security and features, Sollux signed a Lips Sealed clause that stated not another soul would see the internal workings of that precious machine. It was like putting a ring on a girl's finger for him. Not another man's gaze could find their way to her naked self. Not under his watch.

So, in turn, John was feeling more and more like a dead man. Perhaps it was a good choice to make, being dead and all. That way he might not screw up another thing for the other two.

"Calm down, Sol. I'm sure she's not gonna hurt it," Karkat tried soothing the seething teen, but he only lashed back.

"It? IT?!"

"Her?"

"My baby i'th'n't an  it  ! Th'he's fully automated! Th'he even talk'th! You th'crawny th'hit, you're going to th'pend every th'econd of your waking hour'th getting her back! Th'o help me god, I'll... I'll...!" Sollux spat acid in John's face as he cringed down to what he wished was a small bug. That way he could be snug in some old rug, maybe. Anything was better than Sollux's infamous rage fits.

"Calm down, you're not thinking straight," Karkat stood between the two as Sollux's face went red with anger. His teeth were gritting angrily as he sucked in a chest full of stale air. Holding it in defiance, he began to pace. "Okay, look... she's gotta be close. She couldn't have gone very far with three bags and her own. That's way too heavy. She's  tiny  ! So, I say we get in my car, go home, and think this through. We're tired... we're on edge, we just need to think for a while."

In the heat of the moment Sollux swung a sucker punch right at John's face. The fist-to-face contact was like hot friction as John was thrown backwards. Karkat raked his hands through his hair and gaped as Sollux shook out his hand. John was sprawled on his back, nose bloody and gushing.

"G-god... damn it, man!" John coughed as he sat up, a faucet of blood pouring into his lap. "Dude!"

"'Kay... I'm th'atisfied," Sol smirked down at John.

It was like some twisted magic trick that when John sneezed more gushing blood that the heels of his sneakers exploded. Not just exploded, but exploded with glitter splaying out across the greenhouse floor. Karkat and Sol froze, staring wide eyed down at John who was giggling through his bloody nose and bruising eyes.

"W-what... the  fuck  ?" Karkat blinked furiously as Sollux threw his head back in howling laughter. Sobbing from laughing so hard, the Korean bent over and choked out his cackles. John smiled. Apparently breaking the tension was the unintentional point.

"Glitter bombs... I b'ut some in my shoes for later... b'ranks... and stuff, but... I guess I kicked 'em too hard when Sol b'unched me," John squeezed his nose as he stood upright. "B'erfect timing, right?"

"You both... are evolution's bottom feeders, I swear," Karkat shook his head as Sol regained composure after ten solid minutes of choking laughter. "Bobo the bloody clown and married-to-a-vibrator... that's the two people I value most. God, Vantas, what are you doing?"

"You know," Sollux stared at Karkat as they walked down the hall towards the doors. "Th'he's right, you know."

"Come again?"

"You're really full of th'hit, man."

"Am not," Kar grumbled as he reached the door and stared out at the parking lot. "Where... where's my car?"

John and Sollux looked up from their shared laughter to find the entire lot empty. Not just empty, but spotless. None of the usual trash or soda can waste scattering the vacant lots. Not even a teacher's car. Surely they hadn't all gone... right?

"Uh... d-dude," Sol tapped Karkat's shoulder.

"What?"

Pointing up to the roof the science wing, Sollux's jaw dropped. John's eyes nearly popped from their sockets as he began to walk back from Karkat's side. At first Kar simply sucked in a hard breath and hissed it out through his nose. Then he began laughing. Both of his friends knew, at that point, he'd lost it. "Haha... hahaha... pfff..." He snickered and snorted as Sol shielding John, the shortest of the three. "Pff... nutty bitch... god... haha... hahaha.... My car.... my  car  ... Isn't that funny guys? Huh, funny?" He turned to Sol and John with his eyes like pin pricks. "Fuckin' funny...."

"Time to bale," Sol cleared his throat as they began to inch away from their friend who was clearly seconds from a meltdown. If you thought Chernobyl was bad? You're about to bear witness to  Kar  -nobyl.

"Funny... fuckin' funny..." Karkat spun on his heels, mouth nearly foaming in rage as he took a threatening stance and screamed, "MY CARS ON TOP OF THE GOD DAMN ROOF! YOU BETTER LAUGH YOUR ASSES OFF BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING FUNNY!! AFFIRM MY FEARS THAT I AM IN SOME GOD DAMN COMATIC NIGHTMARE RIGHT FUCKING NOW SO HELP ME TO ANY FUCKING GOD!!  LAUGH  !!!"

"Meltdown achieved... John, you got a phone?" Sol dragged him over to the mulch and cedar shrub covered bank between A-lot sub-A and A-lot sub-B.

"Yeah," he pulled out his little blue flip phone and snapped it open. "Um... Sol?"

"Yeah?"

"Who... who do I call for a car on a roof...?"

Sol cringed as Karkat punched one of the doors in so hard that when it hit the frame glass imploded on the gym lobby floor. Kar then proceeded to punch the brick wall and let out several more war cries before flying across another small parking lot to the wall that led up to the car's currently parked spot. In a sudden fit of desperation Karkat flung himself onto a drainage pipe coming down from the roof and began to climb.

"Mm... first the cops... then, I'd say an ambulance," Sol nodded thoughtfully.

"For Kay-kay?" John looked up, nose now trickling blood rather than gushing it.

"No, for the cop."

"Why?"

"Because when get gets here Karkat's going to kill him."

 

Sure enough, when the policeman showed up Karkat showed him nothing less than unbridled ire and words as grotesque as bile. The stout man, no matter how short, still reprimanded Karkat sharply, shaking his sausage-thick finger in the boy's face(which was really his gut because the man's arm didn't reach Karkat's face).

When things were starting to look ugly Sollux stepped in to explain, through intricately woven bullshit, what had happened.

"And you say that when you came outside the vehicle was already on the roof?" The man said through a bushy mustached that moved like it did the work of his lips.

"Ye'th, offi'th'er. Our friend th'eem'th to have taken a prank a little too far," Sol nodded with his mind elsewhere.

"Boys, I've seen out of hand pranks. This is  ridiculous  !" The man swung a jiggling arm to the roof where the van sat like a crown atop a proud pedestal.

"Yeah, ridiculou'th. Th'ay, can we get it down... let'th th'ay... in under an hour?" The lisping boy bounced up and down on the balls of his feet with his hands stuffed deep in his pockets. From a pair of beady eyes did the officer watch the teen like a hawk. He seemed to be looking for the ruse of the whole situation. For a short while the air was stiff with silence as the officer reached down to his belt and pulled up his walky-talky.

"Hey, Rodge?"

"Rodge, read you loud and clear, over," the scratchy voice called back.

"Yeah, I need a crane down by Suburbian High," he never let his eyes leave Sollux's obviously suspicious face.

"Come again, over?"

"A  crane  , Rodge. Got a van stuck on the roof."

"Uh... Niel, are we on the same page here, over?"

"I said... Rodge, there. Is. A car. On the roof. Of Suburbian High. Loud and clear," he repeated himself with an irritant tone cutting into his voice. After a bit of silence the policeman snapped to the walky-talky again. "Rodge, come on! Get me a crane down here."

"If you're joking, my ass will be on a platter, over," the man groaned as the stout little man stuffed the radio back onto his belt.

Just when the policeman was about to waddle back over to his squad car Sollux caught him by the shoulder. "Yes?"

"Could I... Can I a'th'k you th'omething?"

"Depends, son," the man turned back and pulled his pants up by the belt. Sollux wanted to roll his eyes at this superiority move the man made, but thought it counterintuitive to his motives.

"That ca'the back in February. The Megido Hou'th Di'th'appearan'th'es? What happened with that trial?"

The man rubbed his mustache thoughtfully as he then moved up and adjusted his standard edition sunglasses. As if attempting some sort of fat man's form of stoicism, the officer stared off into the nonexistent sunset. How ridiculously fake could one man get?

"Can I trust you? In the utmost confidence? I could get fired for this, ya' know?" He leaned in, again, as if they were in some cheesy movie that hopped right out of the eighties and rooted its miserable screenplay into this man's head.

"Th'ure..."

 You're fucking high, doughnut. 

"It was actually closed just recently. Apparently the girl hadn't lived in the house in months. Her parents kicked her out after they thought she was possessed. Said she talked with a cat skull in her room and would sleep on her grandmother's grave.

"The thing is, the parents were worlds nuttier. They got it in their heads of all the people that had been closest to her. They'd knock 'em off one by one until she was normal again. Kinda sad if you think about it, but even sadder on the kid's end. She would stay with each of them for about a week before she found them missing or dead. One time she even walked in on her dad strangling her best friend. Luckily the boy got away alright, but not unshaken.

"Finally some little league department over in Ohio caught them trying to stalk one of the girl's old neighbors. Swore up and down that she was a witch and that the woman had poisoned the girl's mind. Said she was no good anymore," the man shook his head woefully as he stroked his mustache like a scratchy security blanket.

"And?"

"And? And the case was closed, the parents are in for life on five murders and four kidnappings, and the girl's been sent to live with a guardian under witness protection. That girl's saved one life, at least."

Just then a large truck with the folded neck of a lifting crane pulled up onto the lawn beneath where the car was. The officer cleared his throat and began to toddle over to the truck, turning back to say one last word. "If you tell anyone? Son, you didn't hear it from me."

 I don't even know who you are... 

 

As promised the van was on the ground in just a few minutes and Karkat was kissing the side and nearly weeping over its safety. The officer who looked like he ate out of a trough of stale doughnuts and old coffee cleaned John up the best he could and departed with words of wisdom. "Ah... for the shirt? Try this," he'd pulled out a Tide Stain Blaster pen. "May, uh... get some pre-soaking action going... but, probably throw the thing away."

"I almost thought he was serious," John snickered as he climbed into the back of the van and took a seat in the bean bag chair situated between stacks of books of every genre on planet earth.

"The th'ad part i'th that he wa'th," Sol sighed as he mulled over what the officer had told him of Megido's case.

 That girl's saved one life, at least...   

"Then why wa'th th'he th'o ready to end th'omeone el'th'es?" He thought aloud.

"Huh?" Karkat glanced at Sol from a sidelong glance as he steered the van to a hard left sending John falling over a stack of self-bound annuals.

"Nothing... It'th ju'th't th'omething the guy told me," Sol shook his head wearily.

"Anything important?" John called from the back as he managed to sit back into the bag of foamy beans.

"Detail'th of Megido'th ca'th'e..."

Karkat slammed his foot on breaks, a screeching sound erupting from his tires. Sol's head bounced off the dash and John's planted an impression into the back of the driver's seat. "What the hell, man?!" Sol's eyes slowly focused on Karkat's stunned face.

"We're here, but that's beside the point. What did he say?"

"Well..."

Sollux went through the motions of what the officer had said from her psycho parents to her tendencies of talking to the dead. The entire time Karkat only stared out the windshield with a lazy look. John, however, looked horrified. He'd called her homeless looking and ratty. No wonder she'd gone over the edge. Especially with a back-story like  that  .

"And now she has our shit... what's she accomplishing?" Karkat dropped his head against his steering wheel.

"Revenge?" Sollux waved the one thing that could have provoked such a game of last laughs. John's eyes threatened to burst from their sockets and dangle down by the optic nerves. Karkat had a similar expression when he saw that Sollux was waving the diary in his hands.

"You've...  LOST   it!" Karkat stared at him as if he had just spoken in tongue and ate the innards of a corpse. "My stuff's gone and my car was on the roof, god knows how that fucking happened, because you took her  diary  !"

"Her diary and her friend," Sol said softly as he turned to any number of pages in the book. "Th'he all th'tart'th them with, 'Dear Friend,'."

"Maybe she is nuts," John suggested.

"And maybe you're stupid," Karkat glowered down at him. Sometimes he really wondered how that, prankster dweeb extraordinaire, was the object of his undying affections. How, oh, how.

"What?"

"She had a cat's skull and her dead grandma. Including ten people who were quickly being stripped off the earth? It's a wonder how she didn't lose it," Karkat took the diary and flipped through the pages. "Sol, we need you to stay at base and translate. Find that tenth survivor and get some info. I'll take John home."

Sollux hopped from the van and stood in the open door, leaning over the passenger seat. "What about you?" He pried as he reached over to the mailbox and checked it. "Aw fuck..."

"What?" Karkat and John leaned over to see what was so unpleasant.

"Welcome to the game, boys."

"What?" John blinked through his thick-rimmed glasses.

Sollux held a small sticky note up that would weigh on their minds as heavy as lead.

welc0me t0 the game, b0ys.

~ Megido, A.

"You know she's done something to our rooms," Sollux slumped miserably as he eyed his house.

"What makes you think that?" John yawned as he hopped into the seat by Karkat.

"Dude, she put my car on a fuckin' roof. She can do anything," Karkat scoffed as Sol slammed the door shut.

"So she can," John pulled the little Tide pen from his pocket and looked at it. "You think it works on blood?"


	2. 2. The Game Changer Starts With Sexual Tension

"God, I hate when that tool's right," Karkat slammed his head into the mailbox as he read his own little post-it note. Sure enough he had the same message scrawled in maroon ink. "She's having fun with this, I swear."

"Let her," John gave another cat-like yawn as he stretched out his arms and legs. "It seems only fair now."

 What, fair like your constant 'no homo' shit?  Karkat thought bitterly as he swung his front door open. No one was home and it would be this way until four in the morning when his half-brother Gamzee got home. Honestly, Karkat didn't give a shit whether he came home that late, it's so long as he came home at all.

Back inside the drearily dark duplex Karkat was trying to find a bottle or joint of something to get his mind off John. Anything but the John stripping himself of his bloody clothing in his living room. Anything but the topless, pants-less John walking around in search of one of karkat's old shirts. Anything and  everything  but John walking around in his house in briefs, guard completely down.

Trying to resist the urge to pin John to the floor and commit such an act he regretted even thinking about was like Sollux resisting the urge to dig through the FBI's hard drive during a twenty minute firewall crash. Nearly... just  nearly  impossible.

"Want a drink?" Karkat waved a bottle of Yellowtail from above the fridge door as he searched desperately for something preoccupy himself.

"I thought Gamzee wasn't above box wine," John sniggered as he pulled a shirt from the hamper outside of the bathroom.

"It's mine," and with a pop and a glug-glug two sippy cups full of Yellowtail wine were served.

John rounded the corner in a large shirt with the logo, "F*c* th3 F***s," hanging off his small shoulders. "Okay... so many things wrong with this scene," he snorted as Karkat passed him a lidded cup with Elmo on the side. Some wine slid down his hand when he caught it.

"Wine's wine. Sonic?" Kar asked as he tossed John a controller.

"Is... this a Gamecube controller?" John's face lit up in a nostalgic light.

"That pairs with its lovely wife, Gamecube consol. Yes. Its lover, Sonic Racers 2, is just begging to be used and played all day long, John. Won't you oblige it?" Karkat patted the bean bag across from him.

If there were two things that Karkat had an abundance of it was bean bags and competitiveness in video games. He once bet two hundred bucks that he could break the top record at Pac Man. When he lost and the guy took his money, Karkat beat him up and took the money back. Again, competitive.

"Dude, you're sick," John laughed as he plopped into the squishy bag beside his best friend. "How old's this TV?"

"Are you that impressed with old shit? Because if so, I've got a ton," he snickered as he chose Sonic as his character. Somewhere along the line he faded into a notion that he hadn't thought about in years. "Say... when's the last time you were over here?"

"A couple of years, I think. Right before our balls dropped and life became serious shit," John laughed as he gained the lead in ring collection.

"Puberty blows," Kar nearly threw John off the race track as he gathered the majority once again. "It's like life saying you can no longer be innocent and happy. Nothing can be simple anymore. Nothing can be, 'I like you, You like me, and that's cool,'. You can't even hang out at the park anymore without old bats thinking you want to touch some unsuspecting kid on the playground. What shit," he grumbled endlessly as John butted heads with him in the race. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" He said through clenched teeth and a sip of wine.

"Dude, no! Awe!" The screen flashed across the victor, of course it was KK, and then showed John's character weeping over his knees and banging the track. "You're right, though," John said as he took a long swig from the Elmo sippy cup.

"About what specifically?"

"What, like you're right about everything?"

"Most always," Karkat chortled as he zoomed past John yet again.

"Whatever... but, no... seriously. When did shit get bad?" John sighed as he hopped right over Karkat and tumbled over the finish line with a thirty point ring lead.

"Shithead!" Karkat slapped John on the back of the head as he stood to fill his cup again. "Mm... like historians and the Dark Ages, shit just happens."

John stared at his controller for a moment. It's his grip on life he's actually holding. He's not got a very tight hold on things and his cord's missing. There's no connection to the main flow of things, yet something works. Something works because little synapses connections in his brain send signals to places and that makes shit happen. It makes puberty tear a great friendship apart, it makes your girl friends your girlfriends, and it ruins everything. John turned back and faced Karkat with a regretful stare. "What? Want more?"

"Out of life," John slumped in his bean bag.

"Excellent pondering. Expand," Karkat smiled as he grabbed John's sippy cup and filled it to the brim with a pseudo-truth serum. Maybe not a government grade drug, but it worked all the same. Especially with John.

"Do you think we didn't report Aradia was because our lives suck that bad?" He sighed as Karkat leaned back into the bag beside him. "I mean... our summer! This is the last summer in high school before even more hormonal fuck yous happen and we'd waste it! Seriously, Karkat, what would you have done?"

Though John was slurring his words a little and turning faintly pink, Karkat thought. Honestly, there wasn't much to think about because he did the same thing every summer.

"Eat, drink, sleep, get high, read, watch some movies, hate myself for never telling the truth, repeat," Karkat toasted his sippy cup of wine and tilted it, clacking it against John's.

"Amen," John sighed. "Okay, one step at a time. Tell the truth."

Through the pleasantly dark room cut a sudden string of words that just plain hurt. Karkat wove his fingers together and stared up at the ceiling. You'd think at seventeen with a body full of alcohol and a mind full of oh-shit one would be able to spill his guts. Not KK. He had the nerves of a navy seal, intoxicated or not. You know, except when his car was mysteriously parked on the roof of the school.

"Only if you do," he said breathlessly.

"Alright," John turned sideways in the bean bag until he faced Karkat.

"You first. And nothing stupid," Karkat gave John a serious glance, but the boy only giggled.

"Nothing's stupid. Everything's important in its own little way," John took another sip of wine before thinking intently on his 'truth'. "Okay... when I was ten I devoted my life to My Little Ponies."

On second thought, this was better than Karkat imagined. He nearly spat his drink at the words. Sitting up and hacking the liquid out of his larynx, he wheezed a creaky laugh.

"What?" He finally cleared his throat as John nodded.

"Still have all the old figures in a shoebox stuffed in the old tree house. Okay," John set his cup down. "Now you."

"Working up to the big truths?"

"All the way to the top."

"I used to sing nineties Britney Spears sing-alongs with my hairbrush," Karkat snickered as John gaped at him.

"No!"

"Eeyup," Kar snickered still as he topped off his cup. "You go."

"I used to cheat on my third grade spelling test just to get a gold star and a sucker from Mrs. Whizzy."

"It was Mrs. Wheasy, dumb ass," Karkat cried as he laughed his way back to his chair, this time just drinking straight from the bottle.

"Whatever, you go!"

"I once owned a cardboard cut out of N*SYNC."

John nearly spewed wine as he fell out of his chair and rolled around the floor. Throwing his head back and cackling, kicking the laughter out, John's face turned red; he was having some  real  fun for the first time in years.

Karkat pulled his best not-boy friend back into his bean bag in anticipation of his next truth. It had to be good because Karkat spent three years in horrified suspicion that someone would find out his love of turn-of-the-century boy bands. "Dude, hurry up. This better be good," Kar said from the lip of the bottle.

"Alright, alright," John sighed out his giggles as he held a finger up. "Hold up." He took a long gulp of wine and wiped his mouth. He sat there shaking his head out as he looked up at his best friend.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Okay... uh... dude, you ready for this?" John grinned so wide that he thought his face might split.

"Ready."

"I'm not gay, but I like you."

Nope. Shit got real again.

Karkat lowered the bottle and let it land on the ground with a thud. John nodded and laughed stupidly as he hid his face behind his hands like a two year old who'd shared their cookies at recess. He then spread his fingers and smiled through them, face rosy with intoxication. If only, if only, if only he wasn't drunk.

 No... don't take control of the situation... keep it friendly... boy... friendly...  Karkat chanted in his head until finally John spoke.

"Now you," he finally dropped his hands away from his face and carefully looked to KK for his reply.

**Pause. Readers, learn from this. Learn well. What you are about to read is a stunt of fictional proportions that could be applied to real life. Please, readers, do not attempt to do any of the following. It is dangerous to your heart, for the actions could break it. The stunts may cause haunting regret, heart ache, emotional torment, excessive crying and listening to the song I Miss You by Blink 182, and increased sex drive. You have been warned. **

"I love you."

"Eeh... what?"

Karkat was right. Life does nothing but fuck stuff up.

"Oh god... wait, no! Redo!  Redo !" Karkat turned as red as his bean bag chair, John nearly falling backwards over the back of his chair.

"Redo," John snorted as Karkat helped him to his feet. "I didn't get a redo..."

"Yeah, but my truth was bigger," Karkat stiffened like a board when John began wobbling back in forth towards him.

John giggled his way right onto Karkat's chest, his face pressing against his friend's shoulder. When had he gotten so tall? "Why's that?" John slurred slowly as Karkat slowly wrapped his arms around his back.

"Because I meant what I said," he lowered his voice to a whisper.

In the hot stillness of the afternoon, thunder beating against the sky, lightening racing across the sky, life chose not to take precedence. John closed his eyes, hugged Karkat back, and, barely above a whisper, said, "What makes you think that I didn't?"

 

The next thing either of them knew bodies were tangled. John was being slammed against the wall as Karkat hoisted him in the air. Their lips crushed together as John wrapped his legs around Karkat's waist. Karkat, blindly reaching around the wall, swung the door to his room open. The light was off, but that was fine. John wanted it that way, even if he was drunk.

"Haa... John," Karkat hissed as he tore his shirt off John's body. They hit the bed hard, but they never separated. Karkat nearly shredded the shirt trying to get it off, his pants almost meeting a similar fate.

In the heat of the moment nails clawed, lips twisted, and lungs gasped. The raging storm overhead only intensified the room as Karkat hoisted John's hips a little higher. Momentarily their eyes met, affirming any fears and desires to come. It was too late to turn back and neither wanted to.

However, if the boys could have taken their attention away from each other long enough to notice something dastardly afoot they might have foreseen the circumstances. If only, If only, If only.

 

Back down the street, face cornered in an old desktop he used for emergencies(such as laptop thievery by a maniac girl), Sollux was frantically researching. His three divided screens were exploding with semi-useful information about the Megido case.

From books to smuggled file records, photograph files to personal statements, Sollux was up to his eyeballs in research. This was all fueled by the desire to have his baby back in his possession. If he didn't have her back soon, he'd die.

 Bwoop ! Beeped his little PC. It was the girl he'd been looking for. Somehow that woman had evaded him for the past three hours. That, or the storm was messing with his primly filched wifi signal.

CC: HE-----LLO THE---RE!

TA: hey fii2h fiin2. he onliine 2day?

CC: EE----YUP! HE'S BEEN VERY WORRIED ABOUT HER. MOOR FIN USUAL! I REELY HOPE SEA'S OKAY. 38(

TA: 2he wa2 okay enough two punch 2ome liight2 out. ii2 he up for talkiing?

CC: THINK SO! HE DIDN'T SEEM TO MIND. BUT BE SEA-NSITIVE.

TA: whatever. ju2t put hiim on.

 

<notice>//: CC is attempting to connect you with ehal... aslke... i34387fdnnow11898=-'ee kljklw `12q3`-0asdlf...

"God damn it!" Sollux snarled bitterly as he swatted the fossil-aged machine. No dice. "Fuck... phone... phone...  Egbert !" Again he let out a nearly high pitched screech of anger. Truly, it was all his fault. He'd gotten their bags stolen by a semi-psychopath, he'd been the cause for his precious baby to be torn away from him, and now he was resorting to using his grandma's old rotator dial phone that weight more than his head.

 Shhhhhhh bring! Shhhhhhhh bring! Shhhhhh bring!  The sounds of the phone echoed through the kitchen that was embroidered to the teeth. He'd have said armed, but knowing his grandmother, it would have been a joke.

Looking around in boredom, Sollux noticed that everything had a creepy set of peering eyes. The cat clock on the wall with the swishing tail looked bath and forth, the little porcelain deer bored their lazy stare into his skull, and even the oven mitts gave him funny looks. Or was that just the apple strudel stain in the stitches?

"Shello, baby doll! Why'd ya' call?"

Each and every time that girl picked up the phone and gave her signature south-coast answer, Sollux gagged a little. How he'd come to make a relationship with this wanna-be hippie, hipster-posing, drama-addicted, gossip-happy--!! "Shello?"

"Ah, th'orry, Fef. It'th me."

"Th'uckatash, it'th you!" She giggled, doing her very best impression of Sylvester the Cat. Unfortunately, Sollux is Korean and is only confused.

"My li'th'p i'th'nt funny... that'th rude," he said curtly as he picked up the bulky receiver and carried it, and a note pad and pen, into the bathroom. "God," he instinctively blinked as he adjusted his eyes to the pastel pinks and soft grey-blues, mint greens and yellows, of his grandmother's bathroom.

Each and every hard or cold surface was covered with something vaguely resembling shag carpet, right down to the toilet seat, cover, and tank lid. Eyes shielded from the frilly fringes of the shower curtain, he sat on the toilet lid. No toilet seat, Sol thought, should ever be this cozy.  

"Papa bear, I don't get the download if the torrents don't buffer," her suddenly tech-y voice spun one-eighty. Ah, right, he thought. This is why. "Your Dinosaur 95 bite the dust?"

"It'th a Window'th 95, thank you. A tru'th'ty back up in all ca'th'e'th of emergency," he smirked as he tapped the end of the pen on the notepad. "Now, to the point? What'th hi'th digit'th?"

"Sour puss," she groaned a little over the crackling line as she spat out some incoherent numbers that would form the mystery boy's number. "Remember, he's still in his shell. Since the who head hunt thing with Ara-baby, he's been... how shall I say... something's amiss," she seemed to nod through the line as she spoke.

"Yeah, my grandmother embroider'th the entire hou'th'e. Something'th ami'th. It ju'th't depend'th on hi'th brand of crazy."

"Point taken, sea bacon!" She giggled.

"Fef, enough. Your pun'th are making me th'ea th'ick," Sol groaned as the girl gasped.

"Whoopsie! Anemones... AH!! Apologies!"

"Okay, fish brain'th. Enjoy a rela'th'ing day of nothing. I've got work to do," he bid the cheery girl ado and hung the receiver up.

Back in the fluffy bathroom of all things old and(at some point in a dark and fluffy time) cute, Sollux was thinking intently. He hadn't gotten a call from Karkat, as if he would have been sober enough to dial a number, and there was certainly no news from John. In fact, they were all becoming far too quiet. Far... far... too... quiet...

 KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!!  

The boy nearly jumped straight from his skin at the sound. It was his rickety old grandmother who was peeking in, her eyes blinking warmly at her grandson. "Sweetie," she beamed in her usual warm-toned Korean. "Darling, dearest. I need the phone."

Answering her back fluidly as she had was Sollux, "Sorry. I needed to call a friend."

"A girl?" The short woman's face lit up brightly at the word 'friend'. Since he was little Seol Yun, going by Sollux ever since he came to the states, had never in his life called someone he hung out with a friend. He'd called them business acquaintances, peers, students that also go to the same school as he did, and, "Oh, yeah... them..." To hear the word friend was like any weight on her little shoulders was lifted that he would die lonely and addicted to internet porn. And Sol could see this look in his grandmother's eyes.

"Yes, a girl who is my friend, but not my girlfriend," Sollux reassured her gently as he took the phone back into the kitchen and set it on its little shelf. "Later I need to call another acquaintance. We're trying to find a girl who's very scared of something. She may have taken some of my things along with her escape. Now she's beginning to make a game out of it to, what we believe, is to erase some very bad memories."

"Goodness," the old woman placed her hand over her heart as if the distress of a young girl nearly knocked her off her feet. Shaking her head in dismay and frowning, the old woman sighed. Then, suddenly as her mood had turned, she'd become bright again. Though, bright in a worldly way. Her face seemed to glow with wisdom as she spoke. "Well, you'll just have to go along and play the game!"

"She left for an unknown destination this afternoon. She could be in New Mexico or all the way in Cambodia by now!" He exclaimed as his wisdom-brimming grandmother tut-tutted him down the hall as he tried to escape her brightly lit ways.

"It's summer. You're nearly a man, now. That friend of yours... oh, what's his name... the angry one with the funny red eyes!" She asked as she guided him back to the kitchen table. Just as expected, it was draped in crocheted elegance with tiny little flowers sewn along the trim.

"Karkat?"

"Kermet!"

Sollux turned a little pink because the woman seemed so triumphant at her thought. Seeing the joy in her face, he couldn't correct her. "Anyhow, that Kermet boy," Sollux snickered, "he's got a nice van. And what about that boy with the funny clothes. Joan? Joan!" Another snort. "Just ask Kermet and Joan if they'd come along. They're always bored. I'm  sure  they'd join you." Clasping his hands, the old woman turned to the precarious cat clock. "Heavens, it's going to be too late to call her now! My, I'm so old."

"No, not true," Sollux consoled her as he stood high above her hunched body and helped her to the sitting room(equally fluffy and padded with crochet-everything). The kindly old woman took a creaky seat on the couch and sighed comfortably as her grandson knelt and patted her own hands this time. "You're just wearing your wisdom. Your head's so full of things that it gets busy."

"You're the best grandson a woman could ever have, Seol Yun," she kissed his forehead softly before settling into her chair. "Now, if you don't mind, an old woman's gotta think off her feet. Say hello to Kermet and Joan for me, would you?"

"Won't forget it," Sollux smiled as he walked back to his room(which was done easily in five strides, ten for others) and gathered a notebook, some spare cash, and that number. English at last. "You're next, my'th'tery boy," he whispered to the sticky note as he walked back out of his room and found his grandmother deep in the pages of a ridiculously gushy romance novel.

"Have a nice night, Seol Yun," she waved him out the door.

"You too, grandma."

 

Outside the thunderstorm was doing some visible damage on the horizon. One old tree, given that it was rotten to the core, had been split down the middle. Spear-like splitters shot out of the base like lightening and reached up towards the sky. Leaves caked the sidewalk and street, some twigs strewn over the asphalt, and loose gravel spilling out into the open road. Standing in her yard was a distraught looking woman who was surveying the damage done to her garden and hanging plants. Though she seemed in horrible spirits, Sollux couldn't have cared less.

Inside his head was the finely tuned workings of a machine that ticked, lived, and breathed in complete function. Currently, its primary function was putting together the ten thousand piece puzzle of what Aradia had seen in overturning three boy's lives on the sideline. Hadn't she had plenty to do with the police and hiding in protected custody? Or, was that the whole point? Just another shot of adventure in her hurricane life?

"God, thi'th girl," he shook his head as he adjusted his 3D glasses and stared up the steep hill that lead to Karkat's house. Trying to make the long excursion to John's mini-mansion on foot was beyond pointless.

And so up the hill he'd go. Though, what he'd fine would be far from what he expected.

 

Words were lost when trying to describe the situation unfolding before Karkat's eyes. Panic? Hyperventilation? Fear? No, horror. All of the above, definitely. Not only was John lying in his bed, body bruised and completely filthy, not to mention reeking of the smell of sex, and Karkat was handcuffed to him. John seemed blissfully unaware as he slept like he always had, like a rock.

Karkat's heartbeat was similar to John's sleep habits. His own gentle pulse had begun to throb at dangerous levels, beating inside his head like a ball of broken glass running down a very new chalk board. Besides that, he was sweating his weight in water. He knew he hadn't jumped into a bath of ice water just now, so he was clearly sweating in panic. He'd tried breaking the cuffs a few times, even picking them... no such luck. He was locked there staring at John's pleasant face.

 Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!  was Kar's only thought.

Oh, and did the thoughts get better when a gentle knocking came from his covered window. Karkat, straining hard against the cuff without waking John, reached over and pulled the curtains apart ever so slightly. It was Sollux with the most stunned look on his face. It was like he could read minds with that look.

"You  didn't !" He grabbed his hair as he looked at Karkat, not yet able to see the cuffs. "What were you  thinking , shit brains?!" He hissed as he pushed up the window and climbed through it like a spider might. "I mean, honestly, what if he wake--..." Suddenly the silvery handcuffs were spotted and the room fell into a visible silence. "Kar...?"

"I don't know... I passed out... the storm... these things... Sollux, the only thing I remember is... him saying something... and then waking up like this," Karkat ran his free hand over his face and stared at John. Even Sollux had to recoil a little in shock. John wasn't just filthy, he was  ravaged .

"Well... what do we do?"

"Break these... first, we break these cuffs and then clean him. Dress him, lie him on the couch, and pray he was as drunk as I was," Karkat was sweating even more profusely than when he was alone now. Sollux gaped as he slapped his hands over Kar's mouth.

"Mn... nn..." John was stirring in his sleep, yawning widely like a cat might after a sun-bathed nap.

"N-no, no, no," Karkat hissed as John let his arm come down as he rolled over.

In one swift motion Karkat's skull met the top bunk of a very unsafe looking bunk bed. His head made the same noise a rock might when it was thrown at a fence. Hollow, hard, and loud. At first Sollux wanted to giggle his way through the ordeal, but then he saw Kar's eye twitch in shock. Blood was dripping down his face and making a thick mark along his eye and cheek.

"Ooh," Sol cringed as he walked back and shut the door so that the full length mirror would be exposed. Though, to both the boy's shock, there wasn't just a mirror there. "Megido!" He cried as softly as he could, ripping a little blue post-it off the mirror.

naughty b0y, karkles. very naughty, indeed. thr0ugh the b0nd of metal and b0ne, y0u'll learn to at0ne. w0nder h0w j0hn will take it.

l00k 0ut f0r the first clue.

~ Megido, A.

"She's  killing  me!" Karkat hissed with a feverish tone as he kept a watchful eye on John.

The boy was unbeknownst in his gentle mid-afternoon slumber. His eyes raced beneath his eyelids frantically as he moved swiftly through his few moments of REM sleep. Silently Kar wondered just what he was dreaming of, but tuned back into reality and quickly abandoned those romantic pursuits. One can only imagine panicking with reckless abandon when in a situation as so.

Though, when Kar looked to his friend, he seemed at a loss. Usually Sollux was the first one to raise his hand in any class, the man everyone turned to for answers, and had the mental processor of a supercomputer. Not today. Sol looked like he'd not been so lost in his entire life. As if, suddenly, everything he'd ever learned, every puzzle solved, every question answered... it had all been a lie as solid as concrete, though, now wavering like smoke beneath glass.

"Bolt cutter'th?"

"The garage," Karkat bit his lip as he jerked his neck towards his door.

When Sollux returned he had more than just an arsenal of bolt cutters. He'd brought in a welder, a hand saw, the bolt cutters, a medical hack saw, and a drill. In any  other  situation this scene might have looked incredulous. You know, more so than Karkat handcuffed to his secretly semi-unrequited love who was peacefully dozing off in the bed next to them.

"Which fir'th't?"

"Cutters."

Hovering the blades between what looked like flimsy metal chains, Sollux burst into a heated sweat. It was like a time bomb was placed before him and the only wires were the red ones. Even so, John, if awoken suddenly, would be just as devastating. Not to mention that, but he'd be stuck to the assailant.

"Only red wire'th," Sol muttered quietly to himself as he squeezed down the handle with a sudden wave of all his strength. But something was very wrong. Instead of feeling that satisfying 'snap' of the chains a strong vibration shot up Sollux's arms and shook him at his shoulders. "W-wha...  what ?" His eye twitched when he looked down at the cutters. Not only hadn't they cut the chains, but the force had somehow broken the bolt cutters. Karkat let out a high squeak of fear as Sol, unflinching, reached over and grabbed the hack saw. "What'th that ec'th'pre'th'ion(expression) people in the th'outh u'th'e?"

"Which one?" Kar bit his nails.

"The one. About getting th'tuff done?"

"Get'er done?"

"Yeah that. Gitter dun," Sol put his foot on the chains so that it drew taught against the bed frame. John was still silently slumbering when Sollux, one foot on the bed with the chains, one hand on the saw, began cutting away the metal.

An overwhelming feeling of relief filled him when he saw tiny metal shavings shoot off into the floor as he cut down harder and harder. "Th'omething'th... not right," Sol stared at the chains as he stood back and looked at his work. True, there was a pile of metallic shavings at the foot of the bed, but the chains shone as if they'd been freshly polished. To both's dismay it was the saw that was dull and worn. "Rage quit."

"You can't quit on me! He wakes up, and I'm  hung  up!" Karkat nearly pleaded, eyes shooting from Sol to John, back and forth nervously.

"Well we can't th'eparate you two!" Sol shot back as he too found himself watching John with hyper vigilance. "So, what? You want me to be hung up by my balls with you because you slept with your drunk best friend?"

Hearing it back Karkat felt a little ashamed. Everything sounds better in theory.

"Sure?"

"NO!"

"Aw, man, come  on !" Kar was nearly in tears now. To an outside viewer, it was a sight. To Sol, it was pathetic. He groaned and rolled his dark eyes, staring down on Karkat with impatience.

"You do know what ha'th to be done, right?" Kar nodded, though his face was a sickening mixture of vomit-green and ghost-white. He couldn't have been more terrified than just then, but there was nothing he could do. "Prepare for war, Vanta'th. Thing'th could get me'th'y."

 

And, what, you might ask, was the plan of action? Let me paint you a picture.

Karkat and Sollux are standing before the bunk bed. Their faces are grim as if they were either staring into the face of exposed antimatter or slumbering bear. Sollux, armed to the teeth with a colander helmet, oven mitt gloves, baking sheet chest plate, and mixing bowl crotch-guard, was standing just behind Karkat who was wearing equally ridiculously kitchen-inspired set of armor. Before them, the target. The end-all, the end-game; Sleeping John.

No, reader, this was no rebellion of the Barons of John II. This is no Magna Carta, no habeas corpus peace treaty; this is war. This is the Battle of Hastings meets WWII meets the supposed apocalypse. War.

The weapon of war on the defending side? A very long hockey stick.

"Careful, nimwit! If you hurt him while you're waking him, th'hit could get real... real fa'th't!" Sollux hissed from behind Kar as he held his breath in anticipated fear.

"I know," Kar breathed through his nose as he prodded Egbert. No budge. Again, no result. John seemed so be sleeping like a rock.

"Try again," Sollux hissed from behind.

"Okay." Harder, he jabbed John. Finally, a stir. But only a stir. "This is ridiculous. JOHN!" Karkat shouted.

Finally John's eyes flew open. For a moment it was clear he wasn't aware of anything around him. He looked as if he was woken in a dream. His face was blank and confused, his eyes blinking fitfully at the bottom of the bunk bed above him. Suddenly it registered that he didn't have a bunk bed and that he didn't have clothes. "John, wake up."

"What have you done?!" Sollux nearly choked as he saw John's expression when he turned his head over to look at the room he was in.

Crystal blue eyes watered as he saw the orange sunlight pouring through the window next to the bed. The world seemed too bright for him to understand in that moment, but he had some idea. "What," he nearly slurred. "What happened?"

John sat upright and rubbed his eyes, blindly searching around for his glasses. On a pair of tongs, Karkat handed the boy his Coke-bottle bottom glasses, the square ones. Slowly John slid them onto his face and groaned. His eyes were reluctant to adjusting. "Karkat? What the...?"

"Precau'th'ion," Sollux offered from the door.

"What the hell are you two doi--..." But John froze just as he began to stand up from the bed. Something was terribly wrong and all three in the room could see it in John's face. He'd lost all color, his freckles now popping on his pallor face, his gaze transfixed in horror. Clenching the blanket around his waist, he looked down at the floor. Not only was he lacking clothes, but his body seemed strange. Then there was the handcuffs. "Kar..." He began, raising the hand with the cuff.

"I cannot explain," Karkat shook his armored head.

"What do you mean you can't explain?" John voice was becoming shaky and unsure, twinged with a hint of anger. "And why--?!" Another freeze as he tried to take a step forward. Something else wasn't right.

Though John was used to being sticky from being under three thick blankets at home, used to sweating under a warm cover, his body was a different sort of wet and unpleasant. If the two standing in front of him thought that John was shocked before, they hadn't seen the look he had then.

His eyes clenched shut, his teeth gritted, and his shoulders began to shake. His face did not turn white, in fact, it turned rather red. Sollux knew the fuse had been lit and he bolted. At any other time Kar might have turned and shouted at him, but he too was cemented to the floor in fear. John looked hurt, angry, and scared all in one red, teary face.

"John, liste--."

" Listen ?!" His voice cracked as he swallowed back tears. "You want  me  to listen!?"

"No, I don't expect you to, but hear me out!" Karkat tried firing back, but John had quickly found the old bell-top alarm  clock and hurled it towards his best friend. Kar narrowly dodged it, careful not to jerk John forward with the cuffs, and stood back straight. "John!"

"What did you  do ?" The blue-eyed boy choked up, his watery eyes peering through fogged glasses and a red face. They seemed to bore holes deep into Kar's heart, because he instantly felt that pang of regret and shame spread from his chest out. "I don't come over t-to you house i-in... in... a f-few years and th-this?!" He was sobbing now.

"Please, let me explain," Karkat inched forward, hands out as if he were approaching a fawn with a broken leg.

"Exp-plain what?!"

Yes, Kar, explain. Explain to John that you two got drunk and played the Shit-you-never-told-anyone-about game. Tell him how you two were wasted when John admitted he liked his best friend a little more than a brother would. Elaborate on how you slammed him against the wall and took him in his vulnerable state. How you tore his clothes and left bite marks and bruises on his milky skin. Tell him how he couldn't tell if it was the thunder shaking the house or their bodies. Yes, Karkat, explain.

"That's what I thought," John spat bitterly as he tried walking past Kar, hands still tightly clutching the blanket, towards the door.

"Wait!"

Finally John's weight tugged hard against the handcuffs, sending Kar staggering toward him. "Okay, now this I cannot explai--!" Louder than any noise, harder than any blow, John slapped Karkat clear across the face. He gave a hard grimace as he let silent tears bubbled over his eyes and stream down his cheeks. Kar only slowly turned his head, hand nursing his cheek, as he saw John's expression.

"The keys."

"I don't... I didn't do this," Karkat spoke slowly, but John didn't hear him. Another hard slap to the other cheek.

"The  keys !" John snapped again.

"I don't have them!"

John raised his hand back to hit Kar again, but this time he caught it. Karkat gripped John's wrist tightly as he stood over him. "I said... John, I don't have the keys," Kar shoved the slip of paper in John's face for him to read what Megido had left him. Finally, the blows ceased.

"So you did d-do... do...  this ..." John seemed to lose volume with each word. He only searched Karkat's face for any sign of regret and he found it. The taller nodded and hid his face behind thick bangs. "Have you tried breaking them?"

"Bolt cutters, hack saw... they both broke. We haven't done anything else because nothing works. We poured a little acid on the chains, tried burnin them apart... they're indestructible," Karkat sighed as he straightened up. Though they were only inches apart in height difference, he felt John was so much smaller just then. Like he'd hurt a small child who had trusted him dearly.

John opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it quickly. He had nothing to say.

The room became stiff with silence as John watched Kar take the metal baking sheets and pot holders off so that he was completely exposed. His threw one arm out and closed his eyes. "If you're pissed, hit me. I don't care, I deserve it. Hell, I deserve worse."

"Good," John grumbled through gritted teeth as he pulled his arm back and rammed it right into Karkat's stomach. Though Kar jolted forwards in pain, holding back the strong urge to retaliate, he only shook his head out and stood back up again.

"Again," he stared down at John who aimed for his side next. Over and over John swung his clenched fist at his friend from several different angles. Only when his arm was sore and tired did he finally cease fire.

"I hate you," he wiped his eyes with his free hand and made sure his face was at the floor.

"I'm sure you do," Karkat sighed and clenched his own fist as he was nearly about to reach out and hug John tightly. He couldn't touch him, not then. That would only further bruise the broken hearts between them. "Look, I can start a bath. You're... kind of dirty."

"You'd know," John was spitting venom when Sollux reappeared in the doorway, his own body clean of metallic shielding.

"Sol, go start a bath... and a kettle," Kar nodded over John as Sollux then dashed away to prepare the first aid kit for the idiots and the bruised. If there was one thing that Sollux was good at that wasn't computers and hacking, it was organizing the necessary tools for action.

And was quick action needed.

 

In the bathroom John was separated only by a thin wall of sliding door plastic from his newfound enemy. His only defense was the hot water of his drawn bath and some soap he could squirt in someone's eyes with enough aim. But of course Megido had to cuff Karkat's left hand to his right, rendering any attack connected to the attacker.

To the best of his memory John tried to recall how on earth playing video games had led to semi-consensual sex during a summer-hot thunderstorm. How something so innocent took a complete one-eighty into hell's descent. Something was said or done that gave cause to the events to fall like unholy dominos into the current state of things. Something...

Though, thoughts melted away like the few scattered soap bubbles on the surface of the water in the bath. John was cradling his head as he bit his lip hard to silence sobs that just wouldn't stop. His eyes were puffy and sore from all the crying, but he just couldn't stop. Sure, he'd mulled over the idea of indulging a curious calling to experiment, but this had been far to fast and with the wrong person. Not his best friend, not that fast.

From the silence of the bathroom came his voice.

"I'm sorry," Karkat nearly whispered as he spoke, his voice reverberating inside the bathroom. John only clenched his teeth as his best friend continued. "We were drunk and I'm a fucking idiot... and I'm sorry, I really am, but... selfishly, I don't regret it." This was perhaps the most shocking development of them all in the small space between the cheap patterned plastic sliding doors and the rest of the bathroom. "I won't say you provoked me. I could have stopped. I won't blame you for being anything less than being drunk and saying the wrong things. It's my fault."

"Yo-you're damn right," John managed to choke out a sharp snap as he bored his stare into the shower wall as if the St. Ives scrub had never done him such an injustice.

"I know," Karkat seemed to hang his head with his words. "I fucked up bad, but I also feel I've been continuously fucking up for the past ten years..."

Ten years... in ten years Kar's mother had died, their father had dropped off the grid, and Gamzee, his biological half-brother, had gotten into pot and hard drinking. He hardly made it home earlier than two in the morning and was rarely seen doing anything but rolling joints, bagging "grass", or exchanging big bills for little purchases. Their house had fallen into disrepair, duct tape holding everything together from the bed to the oven, and it was obvious that the boys were clueless on what life had in store. It seemed when the parents left Gamzee panicked and relapsed into a drug-induced state while Karkat defended any rumors about his family with an angered fist. Thinking about it, John felt more sympathy with Karkat over his situation than his own.

"But that's no excuse," Karkat shook his head as John looked at the hand cuffed to his. "Hate me every second until this is over, but... know, if anything gets across through this... know I'm sorry."

 Sorry , John thought to himself as he silently slid the plastic sliding door open just a few inches for his hand to reach out.  Kar, I'm the worst... It's not you I hate...  He reached down blindly and found Karkat's hand. It was warm and sweaty from a heated confession between a plastic wall. John's fingers pried his friend's apart and hung onto them tightly. They were a lifeline. If they were getting into this shit, they would be in it together.  I hate myself.

In the semi-silence of the bathroom Karkat squeezed onto John's hand tightly. He clasped his other hand around them and rose their grip to his forehead. It was like a blessing to a sinner that John had so much as touched him and he was thankful for every moment of it. He even allowed a just a few tears in joy as he sucked on his lips to silence himself. "Thank you," he mouthed as John gave a squeeze of 'okay'.

That moment would forever be frozen in the two's minds for the rest of the summer. The few moments when everything was forgiven and mutual regret was felt. In a sense, an equal sharing of agony; bittersweet love.

 


End file.
